Big news this week is that 0.10.4b should be out tomorrow! Specifically Windows support for the latest features. We're still slogging through some bugs in the latest nightly build candidates. Once they're fixed we'll push it out to you. Chartboost and RevMob integration is coded and waiting for some testing.

That's the highlights for this week. I keep updating the roadmap so you'll see what's coming. Enjoy!

While porting my project over to GameSalad, I was thinking... "How am I going to do this without loops?" Heh, then I looked at the Roadmap and saw that there's a loop behavior on the way. I don't really need loops, but it's nice to see that GameSalad is getting a more powerful behavior.

I also put more thought into the "third-party provider" mystery. Which company could it be? Is it http://playerio.com/ or something else?

This doesn't make sense to me. Why go with a third-party provider that might cost additional money when Asymmetrical Multiplayer for Game Center is not supported yet? Sure, multiplatform support is important. However, if the service is $24.95 to $500+ a month, that creates a problem for my games.

This is my problem with GameSalad. I feel like my projects are being leveraged for the benefit of GameSalad, when it's supposed to be the other way around.

Asymmetrical Multiplayer would be perfect for this project, but what good is it if it adds yet another subscription? It's not good for the client. "Here's your game, but you'll need to setup an account with this third-party." It doesn't seem very professional to me.

I think it's important to give developers choices. The third-party option for crossplatform multiplayer could be great for developers. But what about the developers that only want Apple's Game Center for now?

I think it's better for GameSalad to create options for developers. Building relationships with third-parties isn't necessarily a bad thing. But when it becomes the only option, that makes GameSalad less useful to me.

Another example of this is "Metrics Gathering Opt-out", which is what I'm waiting for. The general idea is to create a self-contained application, not an app that is leveraged for data gathering or leveraged for additional revenue generation.

So, heh, now I have an incomplete project in two different game development platforms. Because I don't want to wait around, I'm looking at a third software option.

Also, does Display Text support Retina Display? I saw the mention of Fonts on the roadmap, but I didn't see if the Retina Display issue was fixed. I think it's better to have sharper looking fonts than additional but blurry fonts.

@CodeWizard@BlackCloakGS I'd be glad if you had someone start on mac creator improvements. It's quite far down the list on the roadmap but I think it should be more of a priority.

The expression editor being accessible on both sides of the rule in the nightly builds is excellent. This is the direction I'd like to see things go in more.

The best thing about GS is the rapid speed with which you can iterate and develop. There are lots of 'little' things in creator which could be improved to make this even faster. If some of the repetitive tasks were reduced in the time required to perform them the time savings would add up over the lifetime of a project. And also feel less tedious so make GS more enjoyable to use.

Stuff like:

-Making the expression editor an expandable window instead of a single line.

-When you use the attribute browser in a rule condition the list that opens is an expandable window . But when you select it from the expression editor it isn't, it's a small fixed size. This makes it take longer to find the attribute you want.

-Following the above, being able to sort attributes and reorder them would make things easier. Even better, having the option to type them manually would save time.

-More flexibility: being able to separate and dock different panes so you don't have to go back and forth between screens so much and can make better use of duel screen use. e.g have an actor's code open in one window and preview running in the next. Edit code and just hit restart on preview to see the results of your edit.

-Easier access to tables while editing. Be better if you can edit code and tables on the same screen or separate as described above.

-Better search facility. So you can highlight where specific attributes and assets are referenced on any page of code. (Currently the best you can do is try to delete an attribute. It then tells you which actors it is used in, but doesn't specify the scene. And you still have to find it manually in the actual actor.)

-Improved undo. Being able to undo deleting conditions of rules.

-Improved copy and paste.Being able to copy and paste entire conditions in rules.Not needing two expressions to be open in order to copy and paste between them.Not having to reselect an expression to paste it a second time.

And then perhaps most fundamentally a not so 'little' thing:

-Reworking how creator manages memory/loads xml files. At the moment, with a moderate sized project it really doesn't take long to have everything slow down and eventually crash. Constant quitting and reopening of creator is required so things like scrolling the attribute list in expressions isn't unusably slow.

Another big thing:-Prototype actors having access to scene attributes. That would be great.

@CodeWizard@BlackCloakGS I'd be glad if you had someone start on mac creator improvements. It's quite far down the list on the roadmap but I think it should be more of a priority. . .

Hell yeah ! I couldn't agree more. >-

In the 4 years we've spent working away in a one line expression editor, watching the application crash by attempting to use the opacity slider in the colour selector, settling for arbitrary frame-rates in the animation behaviour, opening and closing and opening and closing (and opening and closing . . . ad nauseam) windows to achieve basic tasks, working without basic tools like rulers or guides or duplication tools, alignment tools or the ability to select more than one object at once or place your assets in folders or zoom in and out of your scene or for windows to retain their position and size if we shift focus or for improved control over layers . . . . etc etc . . . during this time not one single Creator UI issue has been addressed, absolutely nothing, after endless requests, complaints, suggestions, promises, polls and petitions Creator remains as clunky and as counterproductive and obstacle ridden as it did the best part of half a decade ago.

From what I can see these things just seem to get further and further away, if any other application announced the inclusion of something as basic as guides/rulers you really wouldn't think anything of it, but if GameSalad were to announce guides in the next update I'd fall off my chair, check no one had spiked my coffee and give my monitor a good wipe before slapping myself and reading it again - after which I would order in 12 bottles of the very best champagne and an intravenous drip.

That's not to say GameSalad aren't working on Creator, it's just their focus seems largely (if not entirely) on adding more and more and more and more ad/monitization schemes while the basic underlying feature-set of the product itself (GameSalad Creator) seems fossilised, stuck hard and fast in the early days of (easy-use) mobile platform SDKs, the fact that in 2013 I can't drag-select multiple objects in the scene or zoom in seems to me to be out-of-step with just about every application experience out there (to be honest it was out-of-step even back in 2009).

It's as if Photoshop ceased development of its primary tool in 1997, the users love the brush tool but desperately want the ability to change the brush size - so Adobe announce a partnership with PhotoBuzz™ (a great new way to sell your images online) - everyone thinks PhotoBuzz™ is great, but the users still keep requesting the ability to change the size of the brush, so a year later Adobe announce a partnership with InstaPic™ (a great new way to share your images directly from within Photoshop), InstaPic™ is great, really useful, but still the users keep asking for the ability to change the brush size, so another year later Adobe deliver Cloudimage™ (a great new way to store your projects online), but still the users keep asking for the ability to change the brush size . . . etc etc.

I'm only repeating what I (and others) have said a million times before, so technically I'm just whining now

...it's just their focus seems largely (if not entirely) on adding more and more and more and more ad/monitization schemes while the basic underlying feature-set of the product itself (GameSalad Creator) seems fossilised...

It's as if Photoshop ceased development of its primary tool in 1997, the users love the brush tool but desperately want the ability to change the brush size - so Adobe announce a partnership with PhotoBuzz™ (a great new way to sell your images online) - everyone thinks PhotoBuzz™ is great, but the users still keep requesting the ability to change the size of the brush, so a year later Adobe announce a partnership with InstaPic™ (a great new way to share your images directly from within Photoshop), InstaPic™ is great, really useful, but still the users keep asking for the ability to change the brush size, so another year later Adobe deliver Cloudimage™ (a great new way to store your projects online), but still the users keep asking for the ability to change the brush size . . . etc etc.

Alas I think you're right. It's a bit short-sighted isn't it?

Personally, the forums took a dive when the scammers and 'get rich quick' crowd arrived. Why worry about the creator, or the quality of your games, when you can just grab a template, add IAP and ads to it, and try your luck?

It's a bit sad when I see the roadmap and the updates that are kindly given to us, and all I can think is 'I have zero interest in any of that'.

I wish the GS Team's priorities would move more towards helping us making better games easier and faster, as opposed to monetising shitty games for people that will try it once, fail, and move on.

It would be a difficult choice for them and a balance they need to find. Excellent software + less money = go broke. Usable software + more money = stay in business.

I haven't been around long enough to see the development progress but I started in the Windows version and changed to Mac. Windows is a lot more user friendly than the Mac version so it definitely needs improving. I would like to see some steps in this direction while making sure the money is there too for their long term future.

I'm no businessman so can only really speak as a user, but I'd agree it certainly feels shortsighted, but who knows, maybe the way to be successful in the SDK market is to do exactly what GameSalad are doing ?

Personally, the forums took a dive when the scammers and 'get rich quick' crowd arrived. Why worry about the creator, or the quality of your games, when you can just grab a template, add IAP and ads to it, and try your luck?

Yep, it certainly looks like an open invitation to shovelware, lol like you say it's now a viable business model, buy template, plaster with ads / IAP and throw it out there - not that this is a criticism levelled at GameSalad, it's true of the whole (easy use) SDK world.

It's a bit sad when I see the roadmap and the updates that are kindly given to us, and all I can think is 'I have zero interest in any of that'.

Absolutely, I also have zero interest in another half a dozen PlayHaven and MobClix monetization schemes, not that all that stuff is not what people are after, it's just that they are not core game-making features, personally I'd like to see tools that help people make great games, I'm not talking about advanced features (is anyone seriously still expecting advanced features like joints or polygonal collision shapes anymore?), I'm talking about basic workflow improvements (I'm sure you've heard them all before).

I wish the GS Team's priorities would move more towards helping us making better games easier and faster, as opposed to monetising shitty games for people that will try it once, fail, and move on.

Yep, I couldn't have said it better, as time goes on it does feel as if all the focus is on monetization (nothing wrong with that per se, we all need to pay the rent), but it just seems to be at the expense of the tool itself.

A tough environment for a small software company to compete in. If GS had the kind of resources of an Adobe then it would be very different right now but they do not.

I'd guess the Knolls had no more (perhaps a lot less) money than GS when they started Photoshop ? But, as in my analogy above, Knoll (Adobe) didn't halt development sometime in the nineties to concentrate on various peripheral (to the core function) features, Photoshop's success followed on from the quality and ubiquity of a product everyone wanted to use. Mind you, back then the internet wasn't what it is today, so who knows ?